Dow Jones Industrial Corporations-Walmart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.,

Founded in Arkansas in 1962 by Sam Walton, Wal-Mart is now one of the largest companies in the world, with a revenue of over $460 billion and with 2.2 million employees. They have stores under a variety of brands in 25+ countries around the world. In addition to being a massive retailer, it is the largest seller of groceries in the United States. Wal-Mart also owns Sam’s Club, which is a membership warehouse much like Costco that offers bulk products for a reduced cost to people that pay for a membership.

Current Ratio

A current ratio is determined by dividing the current assets by current liabilities: Current Assets normally include cash, marketable securities, accounts receivable and inventories. Current liabilities include accounts payable, short term notes payable, current maturities of long term debt, accrued taxes and other accrued expenses. Current ratio is an indication of a company's ability to meet short-term debt obligations; the higher the ratio, the more liquid the company is. If the current assets of a company are more than twice the current liabilities, then that company is generally considered to have good short-term financial strength. If current liabilities exceed current assets, then the company may have problems meeting its short-term obligations.

Wal-Mart $59,940,000/$71,818,000 = 0.83

Target $16,388,000/ $14,031,000 = 1.17

Industry Average 2.2

Debt Ratio

Debt Ratio is a financial ratio that measures the extent of a company’s or consumer’s leverage. The debt ratio is defined as the ratio of total debt divided by total assets, expressed in percentage, and can be interpreted as the proportion of a company’s assets that are financed by debt. The higher this ratio, the more leveraged the company and the greater its financial risk. Debt ratios vary widely across industries, with capital-intensive businesses such as utilities and pipelines having much higher debt ratios than other industries...